March 1, 1896
Port Nublar
The attack on Amarna was a success. We lost Ashram. He jumped on a grenade and saved our lives though, I won’t forget him. Alistaire caught an enemy grenade and tossed it back, killed two soldiers. He was awarded the étoile de bronze for his valor. I couldn’t be more proud of him, though I gave him plenty of shit for such a dangerous act. Could have been killed. Lucien was shot in the ear by an enemy sharpshooter, lucky bastard missed his skull by maybe half an inch. Gnarled ear won’t win him any ladies back home but he’ll definitely have a story to tell.
The meeting with Lawrence went well enough, he supplied us with updated info on our forces and on the local garrison at Amarna. He also made sure to provide us with support soldiers for the attack. We slipped into the garrison building at night and used dynamite to blow it to smithereens with the bulk of the guards. Blowing the rail lines were a bit trickier once the alarm was raised but we managed well enough. Hijacked an enemy armored car and painted a large white “V” on the front so our soldiers wouldn’t mistake us for a foe. Made our way to the Port of Nublar and met up with General Snow’s Fourth Army. They seemed to be having a rough go of pushing the enemy out of one cove to the north. Had to debrief the General of our success upon our return and he promised us a couple days of downtime in the Port before our next assignment.
I have a hunch that we’ll be given another guerilla mission, though Ollie thinks we’ll be assigned to Snow’s forces again. Part of me hopes that’s the case though. Field Marshal Lajoie along with Generals Halphen and Brasseur are at Port Say’id where the bulk of our landing forces are. They’re having an easier time making inroads thirty to forty kilometers in nearly every direction inland. I hope they manage to link up with us soon so we can get the general offensive underway.
Snow says that the orders from the higher brass are that he is to hold the port until we are linked up with by General Halphen’s Third Army. Reinforcements under Generals Gigot and Bellegarde will be landing with another hundred thousand between them at Port Say’id in the coming days. That should really tip the scales in their favor down there. I’ve also been approved for a promotion to Corporal following our success at Amarna. I’ll have fourteen men under my command, with myself being the fifteenth of our section. We’re brainstorming a moniker for ourselves. In the running are the Blue Devils, Blue Knights and Blue Cavaliers. Blue was Alistaire’s idea given our uniforms. A mascot will also be chosen for our patches as well. Gotta go finish my eclair and coffee before we get new orders!